Harbor Group Inc. Has $343,000 Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Harbor Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 12.1% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 363 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Harbor Group Inc.’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $343,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Foster Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 18.7% during the 1st quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $959,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Fjell Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 32.6% during the 1st quarter. Fjell Capital LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,375,000 after purchasing an additional 618 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 961.7% during the 1st quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 23,146 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $21,891,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966 shares during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Costco Wholesale by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 32,471 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $30,711,000 after purchasing an additional 2,410 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Breakwater Capital Group increased its stake in Costco Wholesale by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 1,129 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the period. 68.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on COST shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,150.00 to $1,225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,070.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Costco Wholesale from $1,115.00 to $1,110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Costco Wholesale currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,035.32.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of COST stock opened at $1,010.81 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $448.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.35, a P/E/G ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 1.00. Costco Wholesale Co. has a twelve month low of $793.00 and a twelve month high of $1,078.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $992.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $978.72.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The retailer reported $4.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $63.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.93 billion. Costco Wholesale had a return on equity of 32.31% and a net margin of 2.93%. Costco Wholesale’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 2nd. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Costco Wholesale’s payout ratio is presently 29.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Costco Wholesale news, CEO Roland Michael Vachris sold 3,600 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $931.00, for a total transaction of $3,351,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 41,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,242,687. The trade was a 8.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $922.56, for a total value of $830,304.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,987 shares in the company, valued at $6,445,926.72. This represents a 11.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,600 shares of company stock valued at $9,140,195. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Costco Wholesale

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.